Dell's tablet lineup detailed

In addition to the Dell smartphone roadmap, Android Central managed to get their hands on the tablet roadmap as well. The roadmap features a bunch of new models including the Gallo, Rosemount, Sterling and Opus One, Silver Oak and Peju.

The Streak 10, also known as the Gallo, should be coming in April, running on Honeycomb. In addition to Gallo, Dell is apparently preparing an update for Streak 7 as well. The next one is Rosemount, a 10-inch Windows 7 tablet with a 1366x768 screen and a release date set for June. The Sterling is the one with the least details in the roadmap, but according to the position in the roadmap, it looks like a successor to the Streak 7.

The Q1 2012 will apparently be quite interesting for Dell as CES 2012 should bring Opus One and Silver Oak running on Android Honeycomb and the Peju, a Windows 8 based tablet. Once again, the positioning in the roadmap suggests that Opus One will be a small one, Silver Oak a mid-sized and Peju should be a 10"+ sized tablet.

Of course, bear in mind that even if these leaks are 100 percent real, Dell will certainly make an adjustment or two 'till these show up in retail/e-tail, so nothing is carved in stone.

More here.

The roadmap features a bunch of new models including the Gallo...

Mona Lisa Vito: What name did you tell him?
Vinny Gambini: Jerry Gallo.
Mona Lisa Vito: Jerry Gallo! The big attorney.
Vinny Gambini: Yeah.
Mona Lisa Vito: Think that was a smart move?
Vinny Gambini: Yeah, well, the man's a seriously accomplished lawyer. If he checks up on this guy, his name will come up all over the place.
Mona Lisa Vito: His name was in the papers all last week.
Vinny Gambini: Yeah, I saw that.
Mona Lisa Vito: But you didn't actually read the articles.
Vinny Gambini: No
Mona Lisa Vito: Too bad.
Vinny Gambini: Why's that?
Mona Lisa Vito: 'Cause he's dead.

Dell PC business – dying, Desktop staff in USA terminated.
Dell made the iPod-killer – flop, cancelled
Dell Adamo – flop, revived and refreshed; flop and cancelled
Dell Personal Data Assistant – flop, cancelled and disavowed
Dell 7 inch tablet – flop
Dell Cell phone – flop, cancelled, staff executed
Dell Smartphone – ?
Dell Tablet – ?

A little more than 10 years, after Apple failures with Quickdraw GX, Pink, Newton, Apple digital camera, and the Centris line, Michael Dell stated that Apple should just quit and pack it in.

It wasn't true about Apple, and it isn't true about Dell.

Now that there are only a handful of companies left, Dell is well positioned as a commodity player in both personal and business markets. That is hardly a death spiral.

They are not my favorite, but I have used them on and off since their PC's Limited days. The company was never about innovation. They are a well run business that scaled up to Fortune 500 very quickly because they mae commodity boxes with a better value than most competotors, and always made money doing it.

They outlasted Leading Edge, AST, Everex. Northgate, and effectively Gateway, it's closest competitor in terms of business model. They went from mail order only to some store sales, back to mail order only, and now into Wal-Marts.

Apple sells the Jaguars and Lexuses, Dell sell the Chevies. And like any full line, it has clunkers.

They can handle HP, Acer, Sony and Lenovo. There just aren't a lot of players in that space any more. Dells servers remain a decent value.

Dell used to make decisions, based upon first-hand technical knowledge. The Dell model worked wonderfully, because they USED to present a robust, well-designed machine.

Today, they make very inexpensive boxes, relatively lower quality boxes. They purchased Alienware, because Alienware was capturing the high-performance, high quality market; however through extensive cost-cutting measures; this too is dying.

What Dell has done, is watered down their name. Who are they? Printers? Monitors? Laptops? PDA? Cell Phone? Tablet?

The hundreds of millions of dollars in re-calls they have gone through, due to failing capacitors are legendary. When you off-shore your customer-support, when you reduce your quality of your product to only survive through the warranty period - you spell your own doom. Ask GM how shoddy workmanship and poor quality worked for them.

HP struggled under Carly - a Biztard with no grasp of what HP made. Dell is under the same curse. Engineers are expendable - but Biztards stay without regard to the damage they have done. In short, Dell doesn’t understand the technology he wields.

The Dell model is in question, at least for consumers. I buy a PC at Walmart, if there is a problem - I have a NEW computer in a box, or my money back in a matter of hours.

Order a Dell, pay your money NOW. Then wait 2 weeks for it to be built, tested and shipped. Problem? Call India, wait in que and go through the Tech Script. After a bit of time (minutes to hours) they will ship you another REFURBISHED machine. So, in a week you get a USED machine; when you paid for a new one. If you have problems now ..well, it’s beyond the warranty period - so you can’t get your money back. The best you can hope for, is to get another REFURBISHED PC in a week or so (pronounced “Someone eles’s problem).

They scaled quickly, because they offered PC customization when no one else did. They offered (past tense) fantastic customer support when no one else did. Times have changed, Dell hasn’t.

They scaled quickly, because they offered PC customization when no one else did. They offered (past tense) fantastic customer support when no one else did. Times have changed, Dell hasn’t.

I agree with much of what you have said. I also remember a bunch of Dell Optimass I deployed that had a high NIC failure rate.

Dell has been outsourcing production for a VERY long time. Their award winning laptops (Latitudes) of the late '90's were actually Quantas.

But you stated that on the one hand times have changed, and that Dell hasn't; elsewhere you say that Dell used to make things better and have better support. Both cannot be true.

I think we both have agreement as to where Dell stands. We just disagree as to whether it is in a death spiral.

They have the means to improve their product and their reputation. But Dell is a computer company driven by business. If the good old HP was all about Engineering, and Apple is about Design, and Microsoft is about ubiquity, Dell is about accounting. Accounting sometimes wins.

Look at their competition (hint, it ain't Apple). Have you ever tried to get proper drivers from the Acer site? A nightmare. Dell can still customize more quickly than HP/Compaq, which has also deteriorated. I don't follow Lenovo closely because they are owned by the Red Chinese government. Sony's stuff costs more, and outside of laptops, they don't really have a corporate presence.

In constant U.S. (2008) dollars, a well outfitted PC's limited 386 in 1987 would set you back about $10,000. Few pay moe than $1,500 for a desktop unit today, and many won't pay more than $700. Besides the aforementioned companies, there is always an e-machines or other low cost box pusher ready to add downward price pressure. Dell felt pressure, and decided to cut on quality and service.

You might well be willing to pay more for a true premium box. Not many people are, at least not in the consumer space. They will pay for features, but not a better power supply.

Antec power supplies are crap, and they are EVERYWHERE, and considered premium, as some of the competitors are crap squared.

The graveyard is full of high-end computer, software and peripheral makers who failed to make the cut. Once upon a time, there was a whole subset of super-premium hard drives,made by companies like Core, Priam and Micropolis. They went the way of the Pierce Arrow and the Duesenburg. The Seagates and WDs soldier on.

Toshiba used to make the finest 24 pin printers, people paid less for the Epson LQ series instead.

I like good quality, too, and have bought Intel and Asus motherboards and hand knit units I cared about. But with the Asus, I had reliability problems, too, as I was looking for a solid moterboard, they were mainly designing bleeding edge for gamers. Intel started outsourcing their low end server motherboards to cheaper suppliers!!

Computers have become almost a commodity for most, except for gamers, hobbyists (who build their own or pay dearly for boutique brands) and Apple enthusiasts. That's the fallout from computers doubling in performance every three years.

Dell isn't in a death spiral, they are Dole for bananas, Perdue for chicken, Dutch Boy for paint ... not the only game in town, but still good enough for most people. Their practices reflect what gets them the best financial return, at least in the short term. I also would not discount their high end servers, etc., as like with Checy, there is a lot of space between an Aero and a Suburban.

Well thought out post.

I used to work for them, then one day my group was laid off and I was told that my group’s function was going to Mumbai. A short while later, I too got cut - along with about 6,500 other souls. Why? Because our profit was not ‘good enough’.

Some of the things that Dell does, to pad profits (not break even - increase profits) is to cut off bulk electrolytic caps from reference designs. How bad can we make the power rail, before we can’t boot. Add a cap or two back - and call that cost savings. What does the customer get? Extra noise on the 5, 3.3, 2.5 or 1.8Volt rail means shorter life expectancy of every other compnent on the motherboard. Intentional sabotage. The bulk electrolytic caps reduce ripple voltage. With more ripple, you over-stress the remaining caps, as well as the IC’s. But, you skim a few cents off your manufacturing costs.

I have a problem with that.

Then we have the whole capacitor re-call issues (rhymes with Ditch-icon) where we knew that these caps would fail in 6 months, but the warranty was only for 90 days.

I have a problem with that, too.

When you make shoddy products, and then fire engineers to ‘artifically’ increase profits - this is a death spiral.

Now, Dell is exploring new avenues to keep the revenue coming in; because their quality and service have gotten poor. They need to exploit high margin products, to keep their stock price high. Today tablets and cell phones ... tomorrow? Purses and T-shirts?

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